Editorial

This edition has a technological and commercial flavour.

Professor Dana van der Merwe
of the University of South
Africa (UNISA) delves into the impact of the information era on the law,
drawing distinctions with the aid of legal philosophy between data,
information and intelligence.

In similar vein Dr Tanya du Plessis
of the University of
Johannesburg investigates the impact of information and communication
technology on the practice of law and knowledge management in law firms.

Professor Anneliese Roos
of UNISA follows with an in-depth
and comparative exposition of statutory data protection with specific
reference to the legislation of New Zealand, illustrating important
disadvantages for participants in the information technology arena in South
Africa.

Moving into the field of South African labour law, Ms
Elmarie Fourie reveals the weak protection enjoyed by, amongst others,
part-time, contract, self-employed, temporary, fixed-term, seasonal, casual,
piece-rate, etc. workers and how the notion of indirect discrimination may be
useful to remedy this weakness.

Mr Riaz Ismail
of UNISA finds confirmation in a recent
judgment of the South African Supreme Court of Appeal of the principle that
admission of liability for a specific amount, accompanied by payment in full
and final settlement, may still be accompanied by an intended offer of
compromise.

Payments made in full and final settlement have on several occasions presented interpretative difficulties for our judiciary, as will become apparent from this case discussion: Be Bop A Lula Manufacturing & Printing v ...

The current labour market has many forms of employment relations that differ from full-time employment. "Atypical," "non-standard," or even "marginal" are terms used to describe these new workers and include, amongst others, ...

In 1995 the European Union adopted a Directive on data protection. Article 25 of this Directive compels all EU member countries to adopt data protection legislation and to prevent the transfer of personal data to non-EU ...

Advances in the information and communication technologies have led to the availability of a range of primary and secondary legal research publications online via the Internet, rather than on other storing devices such as ...

Information has brought about a new way of thinking and trading and a new concept of what is really valuable. In the present article the author explores whether efforts to catch up in various areas of law have kept pace ...